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scans_dailyRecently, the issue of Catwoman's origin came up. Specifically, the post-Crisis Y1 retcon that she was a prostitute, inspired by "real man" Batman to dress up like a loony and follow in his footsteps, or something; the subsequent Zero Hour retcon to something much better; and the innumerable other retcons that ignored the Zero Hour retcon in favor of Miller's take, only more XTREEM, adding rape, underaged victimization, etc etc.
And since everything is more clear with scans, I thought I'd post those two different takes, so everybody can see the contrast for themselves.
Here's the first we see of prostitute!Selina, in the ever-famous BATMAN: YEAR ONE.
Bruce doesn't do totally awesome and Holly and some of the other girls join the fight, causing Bruce to whack Holly, so Selina jumps in. Literally.
That's all we get of her there; Bruce runs off and Selina doesn't show again until two issues later.
Selina and Holly show up at the scene to rubberneck, while Batman and a siamese cat hide out from the cops. Bats fights his way out, clobbering a dude for shooting at the cat. It's unclear how much of this Holly and Selina see, or what they think about it - the extent of their presence or commentary is this:
A month later, Selina decks a guy who's probably supposed to be her pimp (the same guy who was authoritatively hassling Holly earlier when Bruce interfered).
Then a month after that, she jumps inexplicably out a window.
... why on earth did Brubaker like Holly?
Quite some time after that, Selina is inexplicably contemplating possible wealthy targets for theft.
The place she decides to hit, Batman is already at for recon. For no clear reason, she just hops around out front clawing the shit out of people until everyone is down, which is significantly more showy and wasteful than simply scratching one guy in the privacy of his room in proper cat burglar style.
(That's Batman on the roof she's seeing there.)
The only fallout we see:
"Cat burglaries"? Yeah, no. Beating the shit out of everybody in the entire place and then walking out in broad moonlight with valuables under your arm is not "cat burglary," by any stretch of the imagination.
Aaaaand.... that's it. That's the full extent of the New Origin Of Catwoman.
Um. The hell, Miller? In what universe was that Selina? I mean, besides yours, obviously.
Now, Selina as a prostitute is really problematic in and of itself; that's my feminism-informed opinion there. You will find many other feminsts out there who strongly disagree (though the question of being wholly inspired by Batman remains). Sex work, and the portrayal thereof (particularly by people not involved in the trade), is one of the messiest tangles in a messy, tangled movement.
However, here's my biggest thing about this. Even before I'm a feminist, I am a storyteller - and on that count, even above and beyond the gender issue of it, Selina as a prostitute is utter fail because it is simply bad storytelling. It does not make sense! Selina is a cat burglar. Prostitute to cat burglar is no way a logical shift. (And make no mistake, it is very much a shift - she stops being a prostitute and starts being a master thief. This is not an addition to her life or expansion of her habits, this is a complete track-jumping reinvention.) What the hell did seeing Bruce inspire her to change about herself? To step outside the law? Little late for that. To go ahead and take what she wanted from the world, openly expressing her contempt of those who possess the riches she can easily pluck from them? From what we see of Miller's professional domme, she's got that more than covered with her day job. To do something expressive and physical and active with her body? Come on! Even Miller's weirdass take on her here where being Catwoman is all about getting to claw people's faces or some stupid shit like that isn't anything her S&M clients don't offer.
Selina is a sassy, independent thrillseeker and lover of luxury who believes she deserves what she can earn with her unique skills, regardless of what the law says about it. What part of that profile, which of those needs was not already being met by her sex work that being Catwoman was a remarkable improvement on? Assuming, of course, the most favorable interpretation of Miller's prostitute!Selina. If she was freer, safer, and more in control of her life as Catwoman than as a pro, we're right back to indisputable sexist "sex crime victim fights back" tropes (which we were anyway post-Miller, of course, but I'm trying to be thorough, here).
And then there's the skillset itself. Selina's, so impressive and masterful that it can only have been a lifelong effort, is that of the thief: stealth, lock- and pocket-picking, acrobatics, specialized tool use (crampons, glass-cutters, d-cel), and, at this point in her canon, big cat taming - things that one learns for the express purpose of theft, develops through a repeated reliance on theft, or turns to theft as a result of possessing. None of which makes any sense from prostitute!Selina, who never needed or intended theft to be her main source of income and self-satisfaction prior to seeing Batman and most assuredly did not possess the time or resources to master between first seeing Batman and becoming the Catwoman who so easily vexed him.
Not to mention what it does to the romance - nothing says "equal partner" like "would never have found my true calling without following in your shadow," amirite?
To our rescue, though, thankfully, comes Moench and the post-ZH retcon. He starts, appropriately enough, with Selina's early childhood.
Selina is a bit of a problem child, unsurprising from a girl whose mother commited suicide and whose father has not really ascended from his drunken haze since. Her teachers stress that she's smart, and loves gym class (particularly acrobatics), but just doesn't make an effort or engage with anyone.
Her dad doesn't care, exactly. He basically can't. Eventually, Selina finds him dead too, and just walks out of the house, leaving the door open and letting the dozens of cats scatter to the four winds.
She gets caught within a week.
Shockingly, she does not adjust her attitude. She does sneak around a lot, though, and learns the alarm code.
She gets strapped for that, then chucked in solitary confinement in the attic. Which is not even remotely an obstacle for young Selina, but does manage to piss her off.
The director hasn't been finessing the finances so much as cheerfully and blatantly butchering them, putting less than forty percent of the hundreds of thousands in funding from the state to the actual institution and pocketing the rest. Selina confronts her with this knowledge... in very adolescent style, with no clear plan, just a sort of thoughtless implied blackmail. This gets her chloroformed and dropped in the river.
Doesn't stop her, though.
She takes the director's ill-gotten expensive jewelry, turns off the alarm and tells the other kids to scatter, and sets off into Gotham, alone.
(I like how Moench takes a moment here to try to reconcile that Miller scene a bit; the visual of those panels specifically has a lot of traction and has been repeated often, and incorporating instead of trying to bury it was a smart move. Not effective, sadly, but still smart.)
She goes on to have a few tussles with Batman, who can often styme her thefts but never manages to bring her in, and the story finally catches up with the present day, and a Selina who is everything her younger self wanted to be; comfortable, rich, sought after more than seeking... the ultimate cat.
See, now that actually makes sense as a Catwoman origin, and I'd ask where all the sexism went, but you know what? I don't really miss it.
Cooke, Moore and Brubaker did, apparently, but that's a different story, which I have no stomach for telling. Y'all will have to get someone else to take on *that* particular headache.
Scans from BATMAN #404-407 (collected in BATMAN YEAR ONE of course) and CATWOMAN #0 (eight and a third pages of twenty-four).
And since everything is more clear with scans, I thought I'd post those two different takes, so everybody can see the contrast for themselves.
Here's the first we see of prostitute!Selina, in the ever-famous BATMAN: YEAR ONE.
Bruce doesn't do totally awesome and Holly and some of the other girls join the fight, causing Bruce to whack Holly, so Selina jumps in. Literally.
That's all we get of her there; Bruce runs off and Selina doesn't show again until two issues later.
Selina and Holly show up at the scene to rubberneck, while Batman and a siamese cat hide out from the cops. Bats fights his way out, clobbering a dude for shooting at the cat. It's unclear how much of this Holly and Selina see, or what they think about it - the extent of their presence or commentary is this:
A month later, Selina decks a guy who's probably supposed to be her pimp (the same guy who was authoritatively hassling Holly earlier when Bruce interfered).
Then a month after that, she jumps inexplicably out a window.
... why on earth did Brubaker like Holly?
Quite some time after that, Selina is inexplicably contemplating possible wealthy targets for theft.
The place she decides to hit, Batman is already at for recon. For no clear reason, she just hops around out front clawing the shit out of people until everyone is down, which is significantly more showy and wasteful than simply scratching one guy in the privacy of his room in proper cat burglar style.
(That's Batman on the roof she's seeing there.)
The only fallout we see:
"Cat burglaries"? Yeah, no. Beating the shit out of everybody in the entire place and then walking out in broad moonlight with valuables under your arm is not "cat burglary," by any stretch of the imagination.
Aaaaand.... that's it. That's the full extent of the New Origin Of Catwoman.
Um. The hell, Miller? In what universe was that Selina? I mean, besides yours, obviously.
Now, Selina as a prostitute is really problematic in and of itself; that's my feminism-informed opinion there. You will find many other feminsts out there who strongly disagree (though the question of being wholly inspired by Batman remains). Sex work, and the portrayal thereof (particularly by people not involved in the trade), is one of the messiest tangles in a messy, tangled movement.
However, here's my biggest thing about this. Even before I'm a feminist, I am a storyteller - and on that count, even above and beyond the gender issue of it, Selina as a prostitute is utter fail because it is simply bad storytelling. It does not make sense! Selina is a cat burglar. Prostitute to cat burglar is no way a logical shift. (And make no mistake, it is very much a shift - she stops being a prostitute and starts being a master thief. This is not an addition to her life or expansion of her habits, this is a complete track-jumping reinvention.) What the hell did seeing Bruce inspire her to change about herself? To step outside the law? Little late for that. To go ahead and take what she wanted from the world, openly expressing her contempt of those who possess the riches she can easily pluck from them? From what we see of Miller's professional domme, she's got that more than covered with her day job. To do something expressive and physical and active with her body? Come on! Even Miller's weirdass take on her here where being Catwoman is all about getting to claw people's faces or some stupid shit like that isn't anything her S&M clients don't offer.
Selina is a sassy, independent thrillseeker and lover of luxury who believes she deserves what she can earn with her unique skills, regardless of what the law says about it. What part of that profile, which of those needs was not already being met by her sex work that being Catwoman was a remarkable improvement on? Assuming, of course, the most favorable interpretation of Miller's prostitute!Selina. If she was freer, safer, and more in control of her life as Catwoman than as a pro, we're right back to indisputable sexist "sex crime victim fights back" tropes (which we were anyway post-Miller, of course, but I'm trying to be thorough, here).
And then there's the skillset itself. Selina's, so impressive and masterful that it can only have been a lifelong effort, is that of the thief: stealth, lock- and pocket-picking, acrobatics, specialized tool use (crampons, glass-cutters, d-cel), and, at this point in her canon, big cat taming - things that one learns for the express purpose of theft, develops through a repeated reliance on theft, or turns to theft as a result of possessing. None of which makes any sense from prostitute!Selina, who never needed or intended theft to be her main source of income and self-satisfaction prior to seeing Batman and most assuredly did not possess the time or resources to master between first seeing Batman and becoming the Catwoman who so easily vexed him.
Not to mention what it does to the romance - nothing says "equal partner" like "would never have found my true calling without following in your shadow," amirite?
To our rescue, though, thankfully, comes Moench and the post-ZH retcon. He starts, appropriately enough, with Selina's early childhood.
Selina is a bit of a problem child, unsurprising from a girl whose mother commited suicide and whose father has not really ascended from his drunken haze since. Her teachers stress that she's smart, and loves gym class (particularly acrobatics), but just doesn't make an effort or engage with anyone.
Her dad doesn't care, exactly. He basically can't. Eventually, Selina finds him dead too, and just walks out of the house, leaving the door open and letting the dozens of cats scatter to the four winds.
She gets caught within a week.
Shockingly, she does not adjust her attitude. She does sneak around a lot, though, and learns the alarm code.
She gets strapped for that, then chucked in solitary confinement in the attic. Which is not even remotely an obstacle for young Selina, but does manage to piss her off.
The director hasn't been finessing the finances so much as cheerfully and blatantly butchering them, putting less than forty percent of the hundreds of thousands in funding from the state to the actual institution and pocketing the rest. Selina confronts her with this knowledge... in very adolescent style, with no clear plan, just a sort of thoughtless implied blackmail. This gets her chloroformed and dropped in the river.
Doesn't stop her, though.
She takes the director's ill-gotten expensive jewelry, turns off the alarm and tells the other kids to scatter, and sets off into Gotham, alone.
(I like how Moench takes a moment here to try to reconcile that Miller scene a bit; the visual of those panels specifically has a lot of traction and has been repeated often, and incorporating instead of trying to bury it was a smart move. Not effective, sadly, but still smart.)
She goes on to have a few tussles with Batman, who can often styme her thefts but never manages to bring her in, and the story finally catches up with the present day, and a Selina who is everything her younger self wanted to be; comfortable, rich, sought after more than seeking... the ultimate cat.
See, now that actually makes sense as a Catwoman origin, and I'd ask where all the sexism went, but you know what? I don't really miss it.
Cooke, Moore and Brubaker did, apparently, but that's a different story, which I have no stomach for telling. Y'all will have to get someone else to take on *that* particular headache.
Scans from BATMAN #404-407 (collected in BATMAN YEAR ONE of course) and CATWOMAN #0 (eight and a third pages of twenty-four).
no subject
Date: 2009-05-01 08:09 pm (UTC)Ok. Jesus.
Clue: a huge percentage of sex workers enter the sex industry because of the FREEDOM inherent to it. Okay? This is really easily learned by doing some research.
Huge flexibility in terms of working environment, huge remunerative possibilities, no bosses, no contracts, you don't ever have to formally resign, you can't be fired (every brothel I've ever worked in that's "fired" a girl has welcomed her back a week later), you set your own hours... sex work is HUGELY appealing to lots of people (men and trans people too believe it or not!) for all of these factors, all of which are tied to freedom and independence.
I can't even describe how comforting it is to me to know that, no matter what happens, I always have sex work to fall back on. It's always there and there's always money in it. It's a GOOD feeling.
You are speaking from ignorance and misguided preconception and it is offensive to both Selina and sex workers to characterise this way. Frankly, prostitution is one of the most perfect career choices for Selina. Stop being so whorephobic.
no subject
Date: 2009-05-02 10:08 am (UTC)I'll stand by my opinion that Selina is independent in a solitary sort of way. Dare I say aloof and a little bit elitist? She doesn't have any very close friends, doesn't belong to any groups, and lives alone with her cats. This is why I think that she's not very well suited to being an automobile sales representative, at the risk of drawing the ire of any hawkers who might be reading this. This is not to say that car salespeople are good or bad, it's just that I don't think of Selina as a "people person", that she would be more likely to settle for, say for example, driving a semi-tractor trailer by night.
no subject
Date: 2009-05-02 08:13 pm (UTC)Seriously?? I think that's more than a little snotty to a person who feels offended by what you've said. I didn't interpret independent as you saying "not a people person" in the same way, because there's a history here that your comment played into.
no subject
Date: 2009-05-02 08:37 pm (UTC)No.
I tried to quit scans_daily as retro_noir, because it was too much fun, I was spending way too much time, and I never belonged from day oen. I should never have come back. This is just what I needed.
no subject
Date: 2009-05-02 08:42 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-05-02 08:51 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-05-02 09:24 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-05-02 08:15 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-05-02 08:28 pm (UTC)Mod Note:
Date: 2009-05-03 02:22 pm (UTC)Just no. This is an official modly warning (http://asylums.insanejournal.com/scans_daily/profile#DISCIPLINE%20(BUT%20NOT%20THAT%20KIND)). We do not call other members asshats. Ever.
no subject
Date: 2009-05-02 10:19 am (UTC)For me, while I've no problem with it being one of the most perfect career choices for her personality-wise, I think she'd go straight for the *most* perfect career for her, which is thief. Theft is also hugely flexible in terms of working envirotnment, huge renumerative possibilities, no bosses, no contracts, you don't ever have to formally resign, you can't be fired and it's totally free and independent. Obviously both careers have different advantages/disadvantages (like any career), but since I know Selina as the greatest cat burglar, I would much rather see her trying out different different types of that career, because I see being a thief as being a huge part of who she is, her natural job, and one she would have naturally started doing very early.
Miller doesn't seem to have any feel for that at all here. She seems like a big bruiser who just later decides to grab things after knocking people out. (Also, I'm not so sure Miller doesn't mean her "never met a man" to be Selina speaking the truth in the guise of the role she's playing for her client, which doesn't make her seem happy in her line of work.)
Also, I just don't see Miller is presenting prostitution as linked to freedom in his world. Iirc, the scene right before this has Bruce announcing he's come to the worst part of town, in a panel that emphasizes the sex work going on. Selina leaps out of the window saying "nobody hurts Holly" referring to Bruce hitting her, but the pimp has been treating Holly like dirt from the beginning. It seems like Holly, at least, *does* have a boss. In these panels, I'm seeing the lives of these women being presented negatively, with Selina "rescuing" Holly by taking her away because she's had it.